Bellicose

If you don't want an ancient vehicle to go with the Fire Brigade, the current CITY off-road forest fire truck fits OK inside...but I had to fold the mirrors and remove the top turret nozzle. Specifically it's short enough it fits within the bay without sticking out. A bit too tall to go through the rear door's archway, but fine through the garage door...

While it certainly is tempting to head over to the local B&M store, I think I'll wait two more days for the double VIP points...

It apparently has with this Town Hall...which is why I'm not upset for the higher MSRP. Oh, and double VIP points Mar 1-15th, so that helps out too. A higher dollar price is actually helpful for that. Saw at least 10 Fire Brigades go out the door yesterday at a B&M store. 8 to one guy. SMH...

Great uses of last year's City advent calendar! I've done much of the same as you have, except I do not have the holiday train nor the train station...instead I have mixed in the modular Grand Emporium as well as two Toys'R'Us buildings from the TRU truck set, combined into one (to make a decent-sized TRU). One small problem with all of these Christmas sets - the minifigs should all have gloves or mittens on! Especially the children throwing snowballs, or the Series 6 eskimo fishing, etc. I've had to borrow black or white or grey-colored hands from other lines (like Star Wars or old Space minifigs) in order to fix this. Nice work!

Looks like through Jan 27th...I'll have to give it a visit!!!

Which store?

There are civil H-47 Chinook operators (it's called the Model 234), but it's not very common. It would have made more sense to make it a logging or firefighting model than a police one, but that's something that is easily remedied. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/96/BV234cnMJ005.jpg

Bummer, I missed them. Really wanted to see that police helicopter too. Any other suggested places to look? EDIT - I'd gladly take emails too.

So since you've seen it - how does 4439's design compare to the Dino 5885? I LOVE the 5885 design, it's a Lego Sikorsky SkyCrane/Erickson AirCrane. That could easily be modded into a fire helicopter too since their most common use anymore is for aerial firefighting. Here's a photo of one. I agree, the only thing I dislike about it is that the engines are a little too far outboard on the wings - I'm guessing they're being used to cover the seams of wing plates, since TLG has been moving away from single-piece wings on airplane models for more brick-built ones. But that's easily remedied.

Bought it today at a Lego store in Southern California.

Look what's available on the US Shop at Home site!. It's also supposed to be available in brick-and-mortar stores as of today. Woohoo!

I worked and flew on C-17s for years, this looks pretty nice. Add the United Arab Emirates and India to the operators list now too...

Not really. Consider the original point - That quote conveys that it's somehow massively cheaper (by comparison) than the cargo train here in the US, which it really isn't. I will admit though, that if the AUD and the USD are indeed a 1:1, 20 dollars less is cheaper than 10 dollars less...but not a whole lot.I do, however, understand your point that prices are much much higher in Australia for Lego product in general, and I don't understand why that is. The population isn't that small...and shipping costs are high but only to a point. I did spend the last two years living in Hawaii, and paying more for everything because of shipping costs, that wasn't fun at all because at a point you start to recognize the difference between a price that's getting some money back from that spent on shipping, to a price that is artificially high because the retailer realizes it's one of the only options you have and what else are you going to do about it? I know how old that gets, and unlike my choice to move to another state in the US you can't control where you're born. Is it an import taxation/tariff issue?

It's only 20 dollars cheaper here - 160 vs 180.

I've really liked the shape of 7897 (R/C High-speed train) for some time now, and I've wanted to get it. I've read some not-so-great things about the R/C system, and I've seen some cheaper sets that were incomplete parts only, and that's definitely better than paying a ridiculous amount for some MISB set from a reseller. So I'm wondering - how easy would it be to simply adapt the current train and power functions parts to make it work if I get something incomplete/broken? And what functionality will I lose - obviously the horn, but the lights too? Thanks.

I'm guessing it's a harp, to go along with the banjo and saxophone.

Where did you get the multiple-span bridges? I mean I guess you could build them from technic, but still very amazing.

It appears mine has shipped. Woohoo!

Ordered mine Saturday, hope to avoid the backorder thing, we'll see if it ships or not. So far nada.

Well I got my other two train locomotives out and used them to help push the EN around the track for awhile, and now the EN actually travels quite a bit more freely on it's own. It's faster, not as fast as I'd like but it's a start. I think the mechanism just had to be pushed around awhile to loosen up. Still, I'll look at making adjustments where I can.

I bought mine about 2 months ago, and the parts just came in the mail yesterday to Power-functions it. So far I'm very underwhelmed - I mean yes it does move under its own power, but barely - no speed whatsoever, and it moves in pulses. I had to disconnect the middle drive wheels (the ones with no rubber traction band) as they were popping the drive arms apart, and I wonder if I was entirely too tight in how I built it - there's a ton of mechanical drag that the motor struggles to move. It makes me even consider getting out some WD-40 oil to use as lubrication for the drivetrain...or adding a powered carriage to the tender to help push.

That's because that's the 'reverse' side of the train from the other photos. Still the same build, just facing a different direction.

How about the new Imperial V-wing canopy, x2, back to back? Doesn't dip in the middle...

Respectfully I disagree - every time I've seen a Nu shuttle in the series, the canopy appears framed and square-ish. I don't think the top glass is round, it's flat...

One thought - the cockpit area of the original is a lot blockier than the round canopies you've used. I'd suggest using the framed, blocky X-Wing/Y-Wing/Snowspeeder canopy, 2 of them back-to-back, I think that would look more consistent with the original design than the rounded B-Wing/A-Wing canopy.